{LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.* 



FORCE COLLECTION.] 

i UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 






DESCRIPTION 



OF 



TRENTON FALLS, 



Oneida County, JV.Y. 



BY JOHN SHERMAN 



NEW YORK : 
WILLIAM H. COLYER, No. 5, HAGUE STREET. 

18 47. 



Northern District of New York, to wit : 

BE IT REMEMBERED. That on the twenty-third day of June, 
in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the United States of 
America, AD. 18-27, William Williams, of the said district, hath 
deposited in this office the title of u book, the right whereoi he 
claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit : 

" A description of Trenton Falls, Oneida County, N.Y., by John 
Sherman." 

In conformity to an act of the Congress of the United States, en- 
titled, " An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing 
the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the Authors and Proprie- 
tors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned :" and also 
to the act entitled, " An Act supplementary to an Act entitled, 'An 
Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of 
Maps, Charts, and Books to the Authors and Proprietors of such 
Copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the bene- 
fits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching histor- 
ical and other prints." 

RICHARD R. LANSING, 
Clerk of the District Court of the United States for the 
Northern District of New York, 



;* 



DESCRIPTION. 

This superb scenery of Nature, to which thousands 
now annually resort — a scenery altogether unique in its 
character, as combining at once the beautiful, the ro- 
mantic, the magnificent, and the enchanting; all that 
variety of rocky chasms, cataracts, cascades, rapids, 
&c, elsewhere separately exhibited in different regions, 
was, until within five years since, not accessible with- 
out extreme peril and toil, and therefore, not generally 
known. It is in latitude 43° 23' ; 14 miles north of the 
flourishing city of Utica, ihe great thoroughfare of this 
region, an internal emporium of business, with a popula- 
tion of cultivated minds and courteous manners, situated 
on a gentle ascent from the bank of the Mohawk, amidst 
a charming and most fertile country. Here every facility 
can be had for a ride to Trenton Falls, where a house of 
entertainment is erected, near the bank of the West Cana- 
da Creek, for the accommodation of visiters, and where 
they can tarry any length of time which may suit their 
convenience. * 

This creek is the main branch of the Mohawk River, as 
the Missouri is of the Mississippi, having lost its proper 
name because not so early explored. It interlocks on 
the summit elevation with the Black River, the distance 
being only three-fourths of a mile, where the waters of 
the one may be easily turned into the other. It has chosen 
its course along the highlands, making its way on the 
backbone of the country, and empties into the Mohawk 
at Herkimer. 

" The Rural Resort," or house of entertainment at 
the Falls, which is at the end of the road, and enclosed 
on three sides by the native forest, opens suddenly to 
view upon elevated ground, at a distance of a mile in a 



4 DESCRIPTION OF 

direct line of the road. From the door yard you step 
at once into the forest, and walking only 20 rods, strike 
the bank at the place of descent. This is about 100 feet 
of nearly perpendicular rock, made easy and safe by 
five pair of stairs with railings. You land upon a broad 
pavement, level with the water's edge, a furious rapid 
being in front, that has cut down the rock still deeper, 
and which, at one place, in times of drought, does not 
exceed ten feet in width; but in spring and fall floods, or 
after heavy rain, becomes a tremendously foaming torrent, 
rising from 15 to 20 feet, and sweeping the lowest flight 
of stairs. Being now on the pavement, the River Styx 
at your feet, perpendicular walls of solid rocks on each 
side, and the narrow zone of etherial sky far over head, 
your feelings are at once excited. You have passed 
to a subterranean world. The first impression is 
astonishment at the change. But recovering instantly, 
your attention is forthwith attracted to the magnificence, 
the grandeur, the beauty, and sublimity of the scene. 
You stand and pause. You behold the operations 
of incalculable ages. You are thrown back to ante- 
diluvian times. The adamant rock has yielded to 
the flowing water, which has formed the wonderful 
chasm. You tread on petrifactions, or fossil organic re- 
mains, imbedded in the 400th stratum, which preserve 
the form, and occupy the place, of beings once animated 
like yourselves, each stratum having been the deposit of 
a supervening flood, that happened successively, Eternity 
alone knows when. 

At this station is a view of the outlet of the chasm, 
45 rods below, and also of what is styled the first fall, 37 
rods up the stream. The parapet of this fall, visible 
from the foot of. the stairs, is in dry time a naked perpen- 
dicular rock, thirty-three feet high, apparently extending 
quite across the chasm, the water retiring to the left, 
and being hid from the eye by intervening prominences. 



TRENTON FALLS. 5 

But in freshets, or after heavy rains, it pours over 
from the one side of the chasm to the other in a proud 
amber sheet. A pathway to this has been blasted, at 
considerable expense, under an overhanging rock, and 
around an extensive projection, directly beneath which 
rages and roars a most violent rapid. Here some, un- 
accustomed to such bold scenery, have been intimidated, 
and a few have turned back. But the passage is 
level, with a rocky wall to lean against, and rendered 
perfectly safe at the turn of the projection by chains well 
riveted in the side. Of the numerous thousands* who 
have passed up, — men, women, and children, mothers 
with their babes in their arms, hoary heads of 86 years, 
— every one has returned safe ; and even those who at 
first had some fear, have, on their return, wondered at 
their apprehensions. There is actually no manner of 
danger, w T hether by day or by night. If any one is pecu- 
liarly subject to be affected with vertigo or dizziness, he 
has only to sit down a while, until he becomes familiar 
with the scene, or to face the side rock as he passes on. 

* Since 500 copies of this description were printed, the melancholy- 
death of Miss Eliza Suydam, daughter of Mr. John Suydam, of New 
York, has unhappily occurred, who was drowned at the fourth fall 
or cascade, on the 20th July, 1S27. She was aside from the path, and 
her death was not owing to any danger in the passage. The account 
of the rock at Trenton Falls, in the Evening Post, is false throughout. 
There is not half the danger in visiting this scenery which there is 
in a post coach from New York to Philadelphia, or in the packets on 
the grand canal from Schenectady to Utica, or in the steamboats on 
our rivers, in which so many have lost their lives. Merely common 
care will secure the safety of every man, woman, and child who visits 
the scenery at Trenton, whether by daylight or moonlight. 

JOHN SHERMAN. 

Subsequent to this unhappy event, Mr. John Davis, born in Wales, 
30th September, 1725, being 101 years 349 days old, went up Trenton 
Falls on the 14th September, 1827, caught a mess of trout, returned 
and played a game at ten-pins, brought them all down, and came oft" 
victor. The old gentleman dined on his trout at the Rural Resort, 
and although so much affected by the rheumatism that one of his 
knees and hip joints were stiff, obliging him to walk with two sticks, 
yet he offered to return and carry upon his back a bag of three pecks 
of potatoes. s 



DESCRIPTION OF 



In the midway of this projection, five tons were thrown 
off by a fortunate blast, affording a perfectly level and 
broad space, where fifteen or twenty may stand together 
and take a commanding view of the whole scenery. 
A little to the left the rapid commences its wild 
career. Directly underneath, it rages, foams, and roars, 
driving with resistless fury, and forcing a tortuous pass- 
age into the expanded stream on the right. In front is a 
projection from the other side, curved to a concavity of a 
semicircle by the impetuous waters. The top of this 
opponent projection has been swept away and is entirely 
flat; exhibiting from its surface downwards the separate 
6trata, as regular, as distinct, and as horizontal as the 
mason work in the locks of the grand canal. Here in 
old time was a lofty fall, now reduced to the rapid just 
described. 

Passing hence on a level of 20 feet above the stream, we 
witness the amazing power of the waters in the spring 
and autumnal freshets. Massive slabs of rock lie piled 
in the middle of the river, thrown over the falls above, 
weighing from ten to twenty tons. These are occasion- 
ally swept on through the rapids, and floated over the fire 
feet falls at the outlet of the chasm. Such is their 
momentum, that every bound upon the bottom causes a 
vibration at the Rural Resort, and their stifled thunder 
amid the agitated roar of waters is sometimes very distinct- 
ly heard. 

A few rods above this pile of rocks we pass to the left, 
and suddenly come in full view of the descending cata- 
ract. It has formed an immense excavation, having thrown 
out thousands of tons from the parapet rock visible at the 
stairs, and is annually forcing off slabs from the west cor- 
ner, against which it incessantly pours a section of its 
powerful sheet. 

It is difficult to give a description of the scenery 
here. A mass of naked rock, extending up 150 feet 



TRENTON FALLS. 7 

to the summit of the bank, juts forward with threatening 
aspect. The visiter ascends by natural steps to the throat 
of its yawning, and like a son of Hercules, literally shoul- 
ders the mountain above Here he stands free from the 
spray, in a direct line of the parapet wall, surveying at 
leisure the evergreens which cover in contrast the oppo- 
nent bank with a rich foliage of the deepest verdure, and 
immediately at his feet the operation of the cataract rush- 
ing down into the spacious excavation it has formed. 
Back of this thick amber sheet, the reaction of the water 
ha3 worn away the rock to an exact circular curve, eight 
or ten feet in diameter, which exhibits a furiously boiling 
cauldron of the very whitest foam. In the bosom of the 
excavation a Fairy makes her appearance at a cer- 
tain hour of sunshine, and dances through the 
mist, modestly retiring as the visiter changes his 
position, and blushing all colors when she finds 
him gazing at her irised beauties. A few rods be- 
yond this spot a thin shelf puts out from the mountain, 
under which it never rains, nor snows, nor shines. 
In front the river hastens smoothly and rapidly to the 
' fall below. 

Leaving this rocky shelf we pass a furious winding 
rapid, which encroaching on the path, drives the visiter 
close under a low projecting cliff that compels him to 
stoop, and seems to demand homage as a prerequisite of 
admission to the splendid scenery just beyond. Here all 
ages and sexes bow, who would pass from the portico 
into the grand temple of nature's magnificence, to witness 
the display of her sublimer glories. 

This service performed, there opens upon us, when the 
water is low, an expansion of flat rock where we are 
suddenly transported with a full view of the High Falls, 
forty rods beyond. The eye, elevated at a considerable 
angle, beholds a perpendicular rock 100 feet high, ex- 
tending across the opening in a diagonal line from the 



5 DESCRIPTION OF 

mountanious walls on each side rising 70 or 80 feet still 
higher. Over this the whole river descends, first perpen- 
dicularly about forty feet, the main body rushing to the 
left. On the right it pours down in a beautiful white 
sheet. For a short distance in the middle the rock is 
left entirely naked, exhibiting a perpendicular and bold 
breastwork, as though reared by art to divide the beauti- 
ful white sheet on the one side from the overwhelming 
fury of the waters on the other. They unite on a flat 
below ; then with a tumultuous foam veer suddenly down 
an inclination of rocky steps, whence the whole river is 
precipitated into a wide, deep, and dark basin, 40 feet 
underneath — mountainous walls rising on each side of 
the stream nearly 200 feet — tall hemlocks and bending 
cedars extending their branches on the verge above — 
small shrubbery variegating here and there their stupen- 
dous and naked sides; on the right of the basin a charm- 
ing verdure entirely overspreads a smoothly rounding 
and majestic prominence, which reaches half way up the 
towering summit — and over the whole sky mingles with 
retiring evergreens, until verging in perspective to the 
distant angle of incidence, they are lost in the ethereal 
expanse beyond.* 

Such are the High Falls, which the pen may faintly 
describe, and of which the pencil may pourtray the out- 
line, but Nature reserves to herself the prerogative of 
giving to her visiters the rapturous impression. 

The view of these falls varies exceedingly according 
to the plentitude or paucity of the waters. In the au- 
tumnal floods, and particularly the spring freshets, arising 

* A bridge thrown across the stream by the present proprietor, af- 
fords an easy access to many new and interesting views of this Fall, 
and by ascending fh&pinnacle to the left of the observatory a splendid 
scene is presented, embracing at a glance the High Falls, Mill-dam, 
and Fall beyond. 



TRENTON FALLS. 9 

from the sudden liquefaction of snow in the northern 
country, the river is swelled a hundred fold, and comes 
rushing in a vast body of tumultuous foam from the 
summit rock into the hjroad basin at the bottom. It is 
at this time tremendous indeed, and overpowers man's 
feeble frame with the paralyzing impression of Omnipo- 
tence. On these occasions the solid foundations of the 
earth are ripped up, and enormous slabs of rock are 
floated off, or deposited in piles to the right or left of the 
all-controlling current. We have in effect the peerless 
majesty, the awful power, and the deep volleying thunder 
of the grand cataract of Nragara, which causes the 
heavens to shake and the earth to tremble ; which forces 
the son of pride to feel himself mere insignificance on 
the verge of annihilation ; and proclaims in his astound- 
ed ears what is meant by the existence, and what it is to 
stand before the throne of that Infinite Supreme, who 
* can make such an appalling display upon a comparatively 
single atom of the universe ! 

Passing up at the side we mount a grand level on the 
top, where in dry times the stream retires to the right, 
and opens a wide pavement for a large party to walk 
abreast. Here a flight of stairs leads up to a house of 
refreshment, syled the Rural Retreat, 20 feet above 
the summit ■ of the high falls, and in a direct line with 
them — a house 30 by 16, with a well furnished bar, and 
also a room for gentlemen and ladies — encircled and 
shaded by hemlocks and cedars — from the front platform 
and windows of which, is a full view of the inverted 
scenery of the falls, of the flat rock below, and of the 
visiters who pass upon it to survey the exhibition above. 
Here the the philosopher and divine may make their sage 
remarks and draw their grave conclusions ; the weary 
rest from their labors, the hungry and dry recruit their 
exhausted spirits ; the sociable of all grades and nations 
converse freely and unknown together, the facetious dis- 
1* 



10 DESCRIPTION OP 

play the coruscations of their wit, and the cheerful in 
disposition enjoy the innocent glee of hilarity. Greece, 
embellished by immortal bards, cannot boast a spot so 
highly romantic. 

The opening of the chasm now becomes considerably 
enlarged, and a new style of scenery commences. Forty 
rods beyond this is what is usually denominated the mill 
dam fall, 14 feet high, stretching its broad sheet of water 
from the one side to the other of the [expanded chasm. 
This also is visible through the branches of evergreens at 
the Rural Retreat. 

Ascending this fall we are introduced to another still 
more expanded and extensive platform of level rock, 15 
rods wide at low water, and 90 in length, lined on each 
side with cedars, which extend down to the walking 
level, whose branches all crowd forward under their 
bending trunks, and whose backs are as naked as the 
towering rocky walls, concealed in contrast a rod or two 
behind them. 

This place may justly be denominated the Alhambra 
of nature. At the extremity of it is one of the most 
interesting scenes imaginable ; a scene that no pen can 
describe to one who is not on the spot, and where every 
landscape painter always drops his pencil. It is far too 
much for art to imitate, or for eloquence to represent. It 
is the prerogative of Nature alone to do this:! she has 
done it once, and stands without a rival competitor. 
Here I ought to drop my pen. A naked rock, 60 feet 
high, reachts gradually forward from the mid distance its 
shelving top, from which descends a perpetual rill that 
forms a natural shower bath. 

On the very verge of its overhanging summit stands a 
tall cedar, whose fingered apex towers aloft pointing up to 
the skies, and whose thick branches elongating gradually 
towards the root, reach far down the projecting cliff with 
an impenetrable shade of deepest verdure. On the left is 



TRENTON FALLS. 11 

a most wild cascade, where the water rushes over the 
variously posited strata in all directions, combining the 
gentle fall and the outrageous cataract. 

Here the expansive opening suddenly contracts, and 
leaves a narrow aperture, through which the eye be- 
holds mountainous walls retiring in various curvatures 
and projections. Directly opposite the spectator is a 
large perpendicular rock on the other side of the stream 
at whose base the raging waters become still. " Annexed 
to this is a lofty tower rising in a vast column at its side, 
commanding with imposing majesty the scenery around. 
At your feet is a dark basin of water 40 feet deep, rest- 
ing from its labors in the wild cascade above, and reliev- 
ed by collections of whitest foam, which frequently as- 
semble within an eddy at the upper end, and dance to 
each other in fantastic forms, and capped like caliphs, 
pursuing the course of all hands round in an eternal cir- 
cle. On the right, the whole river descends gently down 
a charming plain, until lost amidst evergreens as it passes 
over the fails below. Forgive me, Nature ! I have mere- 
ly attempted to illustrate my own impressions. Others I 
know are far more sensible to thy charms, and far more 
competent to minister in the gorgeous palace of thy praise. 

Ascending this cascade, whose thwarting, raging, foam- 
ing, dashing waters would seem to forbid a passage at its 
side, you are introduced to a grand amphitheatre unseen 
before, where is a towering rock of threatening majesty 
with a singular supporting column, from whose impend- 
ing cliff have fell enormous slabs of strata, 16 or 18 inch- 
es thick. Between this deposited pile and the base it 
would seem temerity to pass, lest you should be instantly 
crushed. This danger may be avoided by keeping near 
the water's edge. Just beyond the column is exhibited a 
natural fire-place. -Here also a rill descends, a few feet 
below the summit shelf. A cedar extends down within 
reach its elongated branches from the root, by which a 



12 DESCRIPTION OF 

sailor could as easily ascend the bank as up the shrouds 
of his ship ; and under this shelving summit a solemni- 
zing echo is generally heard, as of the dreadful roar of 
overwhelming floods rushing from on high. It is caused 
by the cascade below. 

Here the strata are composed of bivalve shells, Tere- 
bratulae, and Producti, with merely a cement to unite them 
together, among which are Orthoceratites, vertebra of 
Crinoidea, and forms resembling the snake or eel in mo- 
tion, which whether testaceous or crustaceous, I have 
never seen exemplified or described in any oryctological 
publication. Three of these forms I once found together, 
radiating asterially from a depressed point of junction ; 
but in attempting to extract the specimen it was entirely 
ruiued. 

A few rods up the stream, there is on the opposite wall 
an extraordinary interruption of the strata, which has* 
very much the appearance as to size and form, of a su- 
perannuated hemlock turned up by the roots, its trunk 
inclining with a considerable angle up through 30 or 40 
strata, and worn away to its axis. Immediately above 
and below, and at the sides of this dendriform interposi- 
tion, the strata are all horizontal as is the case with the 
whole wall, and also of the correspondent wall on this 
side of the creek. I can give "no solution of this anoma- 
ly, but mention it as what may possibly be useful in the 
annals of geological science. I cannot consider it to be 
a petrifaction. 

From this, passing a high projection, we come to a 
place where this wonderful chasm is fully demonstrated 
to be the effect of the operation of the stream. We see 
the process actually going on. The curvatures here, 
through which the water rushes, for a considerable dis- 
tance, are as regular as if drawn by the compass or any 
method of forming the varieties of a curve. One of these 
is styled the Rocky Heart, from its perfect resemblance 



TBINTON FALLS. 13 

to that form on cards, which is so denominated. In a flat 
rock at the side, there is nearly in contact a circular hole, 
named by some the Potash Kettle, and by others Jacob's 
Well, which is 5 or 6 feet deep, and three or four in di- 
ameter. It is usually half full of stones of various sizes 
worn perfectly smooth, and exhibiting all the varieties of 
curvilinear form. Several similar perforations exist in 
different parts of the chasm, from the size of a tumbler 
up to the Potash Kettle. 

The doctrine then is, that at first was deposited in the 
crack of a stratum a small pebble of granite or other sub- 
stance, harder than the lime rock, which being agitated 
by the water, wore a circular indentation. In this, other 
pebbles subsequently lodged, and when overflowed per- 
forated the rock still deeper, and wore the indentation still 
wider. So on, larger and larger were from time to time 
deposited, until considerable sized fragments of rock or 
stones performed the same process in floods, and at length 
opened the perforation into the current. Moreover, the 
walls above the current being every season penetrated an 
inch or more by moisture, and this moisture frozen in 
winter, become annually disintegrated at the sides, which 
combined operation has produced the depth and width of 
the chasm as it now exists. 

The opening in the widest places at the top is about 
300 yards. Now, on supposition that the disintegration 
has been annually one inch on each side, it will be found 
by calculation, that it requires between 5 and 6000 years 
of this process to produce the effect: which corresponds 
with sufficient exactness to the Mosaic account of the pe- 
riod in which the solid surface of the earth emerged from 
its pre-existent state. I see nothing here incompatible 
with the Mosaic history, but m uch in its confirmation. It 
is allowed by intelligent divines, both in Europe and 
America, and is, in fact, very plainly intimated by Moses 
himself, that the " six days" of creation denoted merely a 



14 DESCRIPTION Or 

successive operation of divine power upon the chaotic 
matter of the universe, for the production of its pre'sent 
organization or relatively arranged form. Having enu- 
merated the several items of successive production, indi- 
cated by the figurative representation of " six days," he 
gives us the summary expression of the case, Gen. ii : 4, 
saying, " These are the generations (mark the language) 
of the heavens and the earth, in the day (singular num- 
ber) in which the Lord God made (i. e. formed or pro- 
duced) the earth and the heavens." The pre- existent 
state of the earth he thus represents, Gen. i : 2. " And 
the earth was without form and void, (i. e. unorganized, 
not arranged) and darkness was upon the face of the deep. 
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the wa- 
ters." Now all this is perfectly philosophical, and stands 
uncontradicted by any geological investigation or discov- 
ery which has been made. 

How long were these successive periods, and what was 
the pre -existent state of things, Moses does not pretend 
to say. They are questions of curious speculation on 
which geologists may innocently hazard a conjecture. 
Mount Etna may have been a volcano in the sea, while 
" darkness was upon the face of the deep," and the strati- 
fications of primary and secondary rocks, with the most 
ancient organic fossil forms, may have taken place when 
" the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." 
The philosophy of Moses looks with pity upon all such 
stupid cavils, and spurns the aid of an advocate to plead 
its cause. Let then geologists go on and dive deep into 
the bowels of our earth, as the immortal Newton soared 
to the stars of heaven, and like him return with the proof, 
that as an " undevout astronomer," m an irreligious geo- 
logist " is mad." His must indeed be " a forlorn hope," 
who can view the wonderful scenery of nature in this 
wonderful chasm without correspondent emotions of re- 
verential piety. It is a scene where the God of nature 



TRENTON TALIS. 15 

himself preaches the most eloquent and impressive lec- 
tures to every visiter ; but more especially to the philoso- 
pher, whose mind is called to ascend from the wonderful 
operations of nature, to nature's more wonderful and in- 
comprehensible cause ; for what is nature, but the sys- 
tematic course of divine operation? 

At the Rocky Heart it is customary to stop, seeing the 
passage beyond is attended with some danger, and the 
scenery within the last eighty rods is to a considerable 
degree characteristic of what follows : 

On your return to the Rural Resort, you ascend the 
bank immediately behind the Rural Retreat, and carefully 
observing to keep the left hand foot-path on the summit 
near the creek, you pass through the cool shade of the 
forest, until you arrive with a good appetite at the place 
w.here you landed from your carriage. 

The usual dining hour is two o'clocl* Being in the 
wilderness, at the end of the road, and without any re- 
gular market, it is impossible for such an establishment to 
furnish, as in cities or villages, separate tables and at dif- 
ferent times. This ought not to be expected, nor required. 
Visiters, who wish to dine, should notify to the barkeeper 
the number of their party, in order that correspondent pre- 
parations may be made ; and if any party does not return 
at the appointed time, they cannot expect the same fare as 
" while the blessing is on." The establishment is dis- 
posed to do, in all cases, what it can ; and. it trusts that 
the candid and reflecting will be no less ready, on their 
part, to make all due allowance for peculiar circumstances. 
The best that can be procured in this retired location, is 
always served up without the ceremony of apology. Our 
wishes never yet wrought miracles, and consequently, we 
are not always equally well prepared. The will must 
sometimes be taken for the deed. 

Among the numerous thousands who have visited these 
Falls, we are happy to say that very few instances have 



16 DISCRETION OF 

occurred of the least deviation from gentility or politeness. 
We record this fact with pleasure, as characteristic of the 
dignified refinement of the age. 



SUBSIDIARY REMARKS. 

1. Although the passage beyond the Rocky Heart is, 
at present, difficult and even dangerous, yet, both gentle- 
men and ladies have frequently passed as far as Boon's 
bridge, where is a fall, of about twenty feet, and where 
the chasm commences. This is nearly three miles from 
the flural Resort. Every one who would explore the 
whole chasm should take the full day before him, which 
will afford him time to rest an hour or two at the village 
near the bridge and recruit his strength. Considerable has 
already been done to render this passage feasible ; and in 
all probability, it will soon be both easy and safe. 

2. It will of course be perceived, in view of what has 
been stated concerning the floods and rains, that the 
scenery must- vary according as the water is high or low. 
The outlines of the chasm remain indeed the same ; but 
the character and impression of the view are vastly dif- 
ferent. When the water is very low, you have a much 
easier, far more spacious, and more pleasing path. At 
the Alhambra fifty may walk abreast, and hundreds may 
pass each other on the beautiful level and dry pavement 
of its saloon. You see much more of the rock and of the 
manifest operation of the waters in wearing it away ; and 
the large party enjoy with more zest their association, as 



TRENTON FALLS. 17 

they can sit together, make philosophical observations, 
and communicate*their mutual impressions, or range about 
the shelving declivities from the path to the water's edge. 
For a party of pleasure, especially those who have often 
visited the falls, some think the time of low water is the 
most eligible season. It undoubtedly has the advantages 
specified above. 

On the other hand, when the water is so high as barely 
to allow a passage Indian file, the majesty and imposing 
grandeur, the magnificence and sublimity of the scene 
are proportionably heightened. It is quite another view. 
Hence it is desirable to witness this scenery in all its 
variations. At high water, which, even in midsummer, 
two days' heavy rain will effect, the spray at the first 
andalso at the high falls, is like an April shower, and 
requires the visiter to haste through its penetrating mist. 
The rapids, on such occasions*, are proportionably more 
interesting. 

In winter, these falls are not easily nor safely ap- 
proached, the pathway being slippery, or blocked by 
snows ; which would require pointed steel for the feet in 
the one case, and much exertion in the other. Some, 
however, do visit them in the winter; at which time 
the view is superlatively splendid. From the over- 
hanging cliffs, enormous icicles, reaching down to the 
pathway, become transparent colonnades. The descend- 
ing rills, already described, form an inverted tunnel, 
whose base is eight or ten feet, the apex touching the 
summit of the cliff sixty feet high, and the water pouring 
down through the centre. At the high falls, the shrub- 
bery in its environs is distenled by the frozen spray, 
and spangles and glitters in the sunbeam with in- 
expressible lustre. The reader may easily imagine the 
rest. 

Still different, and far more awfully solemn and sub- 
lime is the scene by moonlight. At the proper season 3 



18 DESCRIPTION OF 

the moon, between the hours of ten and eleven, appears 
through the boughs and tops of evergreens on the sum- 
mit of the opponent bank, and throws her interrupted 
rays upon- the footpath. It is literally the descent of 
iEneas to Pluto's dreary domain. You cannot imagine 
that you belong to the upper world. You have departed 
hence. You are walking, like ghosts, through the 
chambers of the grave, the mausoleums of the dead, 
the catacombs of old Time. You find yourselves in a 
world of spirits, where everything around is the deep 
shadow of an evanescent shade. You pause, your feel- 
ings are solemnized ; you withhold your step. At length 
the moon towers aloft, and displays her full orb of mild 
and chastened light, which, while it flickers upon the 
raging rapids, tinging their surface with burnished silver, 
produces a mighty contrast, as at the awful moment of 
creation, when the firmament and the waters of the deep, 
the light and the darkness, were separated by omnipo- 
tent command. But I may not attempt to portray a 
scene which cannot be comprehended by those who live 
orily upon the surface of our world. Suffice it to re- 
mark, that there is no more danger in passing through the 
chasm at such a season than any oiher. Here the writer 
has retired at midnight for contemplation, to familiarize 
himself with mortality; and here his children have left 
behind the bustle and cares of day, to pay their more 
solemn adorations to Nature's almighty and all-glorious 
God. 

3. The geological order of these rocks is pronounced by 
Professor Eaton and Professor Renwick to be transition, 
the first contains fossil organic remains. Their character, 
in the lower part of the chasm, is the compact fetid car- 
bonate of lime. The colour is a very dark blue, and the 
rock is extremely hard and brittle. It is unsuitable for 
mortar, unless broken into small pieces previous to calci- 
nation. Some strata are more or less interspersed with 



TRINTON TALLg. 19 

silicious particles, which give with steel the igneous spark. 
At the high falls, and so on to the Rocky Heart, the 
upper strata are from a foot to eighteen inches thick ; are 
composed of crystalized fragments of the vertebrae of 
Crinoidea, and of the shells of Terebratulae, which make 
h excellent lime for plastering. Now and then a stratum of 
this character is found a hundred feet below the surface. 
There is a singular instance of this at the first projection, 
in a very thick stratum, the upper half of which is the 
compact blue fetid, without any seam or mark of strati- 
fication between. 

In general the strata, through the chasm, are remarkably 
horizontal, from one to eighteen inches thick. At Boon's 
bridge, they dip to the south fifteen or twenty degrees. At 
the high falls is a very irregular mass, which has no other 
character than disorder, in the midst of which lies hori- 
zontally a curious specimen of semi-circular strata of the 
usual thickness, the one within the other, and the diameter 
of the outside about two feet. 

The strata in this chasm are very distinct, the whole 
distance up the walls being separated by a fine substance 
which disintegrates on exposure to the air and moisture. 
In the rocks newly blasted this distinction is scarcely 
discernible. 

From the summit to the bottom of the chasm small 
cracks or seams extend down perpendicularly, and in a 
perfectly straight line through the whole mass across the 
creek. These cracks divide the pavements into rhom- 
boidal slabs, between which pebbles are first inserted, 
gradually separating one stratum from another, and thus 
preparing the slabs to be upturned and carried off by 
freshets. Some of the cracks separate the whole mass of 
rock, and the opening widens with the depth. These are 
filled with the calc^par from one-tenth of an inch to two 
inches thick. In the middle of the calcspar there is a dark 
line, which shows that the crystalization has been equally 



20 DESCRIPTION OF 

formed on each side. Calcspar is also found in a hori- 
zontal sheet, separating the superincumbent from the 
stratum underneath. Consequently these sheets of calc- 
spar cut each other. But whether the horizontal sheets 
extend through the whole mass, it is impossible to 
ascertain. 

4. These rocks abound in petrifactions, or what are 
styled fossil organic remains. They are sometimes cut by 
the cracks or seams above mentioned. These cracks 
must, of course, have been subsequent to the petrifaction 
of the fossil forms; and, indeed, subsequent to the com- 
pletion of the whole mass of strata. 

It would be useless to go into a detail of all the diffe- 
rent genera and species of the fossils here, seeing the 
investigations of Oryctologists have resulted in this, that 
the same order and character of rock throughout the 
world contains the very same organic remains. 

The most interesting petrifaction in this locality is. the 
large Trilobite ; entire specimens of which, (for their 
extraction entire is extremely difficult) have, so far as I 
know, been nowhere else obtained, either in Europe or 
America. Its generic name, first given by Dr. Dekay, of 
New York, is the " lsotelas Gigas." It is minutely 
described by this distinguished naturalist, from specimens 
which 1 exhibited to the Lyceum in that city. To his 
description published in the sixth number of the Annals 
of the Lyceum, may be added, that seeing the dorsal slips, 
or of the lobes, terminate at the side like Indian paddles, 
the animal could swim, and these slips being not only 
moveable, but crustaceous, it could also crawl on the 
bottom of the sea. Here are small Trilobites of different 
genus — Orthoceratites, both large and small, of different 
genera and species — Favosites, Nautili, Terebratulae, Pro- 
ducti, Lingula, Mitiloidea, Cornu Ammonis, Crinoidea, 
Connularia" Quadrisulcata, and several others, both uni- 
valves and bivalves. Some Orthoceratites of the simplest 



TRENTON FALLS. 21 

form (i.e., real straight horns, perfect cones ; the shell 
from the iddle to the point, hollow or vacant in all its 
chambers) are pyritous ; some filled (in the hollow part) 
with calcspar and quartz crystals in contact ; some of the 
quartz crystals containing graphite*; the crystal ized spar 
is white, black.yellow, smoky, brown ; and the crystals 
of these different colors are sometimes found in the same 
specimen. 

I have hazarded to several the novel conjecture, that 
the Favosite (found here in the greatest abundance, from 
one -eighth of an inch to six inches in diameter at the 
base, and from two to nine superstructures, some contain- 
ing 6 or 800,000 columns) is a miniature exemplification 
of Columnar Basal tes at the Giant's Causeway and other 
places; which, if my conjecture is correct, must have 
been the production of a gigantic order of marine antedi- 
luvian (not to say antimundane) Polypi. Whether the 
substance which composes these columnar forms is lime, 
silex, basalt, or other substance, so exactly do they cor- 
respond to each other in their prominent but very singu- 
lar peculiarities, that I am unable to doubt it. There is 
one single point only^ in which I have not had opportu- 
nity to make a comparison, viz : as to the circular perfo- 
rations in the parities of the cell, by which the mass be- 
came one conneeted system. 1 am not advised whether 
any such thing has been observed in Columnar Basaltes, 
i. e., in the prism, or space of column, between the articu- 
lations. The hollow specimens, or the weather-worn 
summits are those alone where we are anthorised to ex- 
pect this demonstration, and where, in view of the entire 
correspondence in every particular, I have no doubt it 
can and will be found. It would be a miracle in nature 
that there should be a perfect correspondence in twenty 
particulars and yet a failure in the last. The Basaltic 
columns must, of course, be mammoth Favosites. 

5. The most pleasant time of the day to visit these 



22 description or 

falls is after dinner, about 4 o'clock, when the bank on 
the left casts its shade over the path, and shields from 
the sun's scorching rays. But this time can be taken 
only by those who £o not leave the place the same day ; 
and the remark does not apply when it is cloudy wea- 
ther. 

6. There is quite a variety of flowers and botanical 
specimens upon the bank ; and the rock in the chasm, 
all along up the high falls, abounds with the beautiful 
blue hair bell of Scotland. 

Trout were formerly very abundant in this creek, but 
have now become exceedingly scarce ; so that there is 
very little encouragement for the fishing party. Eels, in 
the forepart of the season, are still abundant. The ocean 
does not produce better. They often weigh from two to 
four pounds, and more delicious. were never served up at 
the table of an epicure. 

Game also is scarce. In some seasons, however, par- 
tridges, snipes, wild ducks, the large grey and black 
squirrel, the woodcock, and the rabbit may be taken. 

No venomous snakes haunt this neighbourhood, nor 
any beasts of prey. The deer sometimes come from the 
north to visit these falls, and occasionally the moose; 
but neither bears, nor wolves, norcatamounts ever make 
their appearance. 

N. B. — Ladies should, by all means, come furnished 
with calf- skin shoes or bootees. Let them not forget 
this. They not only owe it to their health, but the best 
pair of cloth shoes will be ruined by a single tramp over 
these rocks. 

Trkhtqn Falls, June 1st, 1827. 



TRENTON FALLS. 23 



JOHN SHERMAN, 



The author of the preceding description, and late pro- 
prietor of the Rural Retreat, at Trenton Falls, was 
born at New Haven, Conn. June 30th, 1772, (grandson 
of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration 
of American Independence, and member of the first con- 
gress) was graduated at Yale College in 1793; moved 
into the county of Oneida in the spring of 1806, settled 
at Trenton, and became principal of an Academy at that 
place, over which he presided with ability for several 
years. Through his instrumentality, the now celebrated 
Trenton Falls were prepared for examination and brought 
into public notice. He was the author of the " Philoso- 
phy of Language Illustrated," and several other works. 
He departed this life August 2d, 1828, in the fifty-seventh 
year of his age. 



